Tiredness!

This is how I have felt all day (refer to picture)! Therefore, this will be the extent of my post for today. Tomorrow's should be more interesting!

He tucked himself in!

Sometimes I wish I was a cat. They always look so comfortable!

My Personal Trainer......A Cockatoo?

A personal trainer is great to have. They keep you accountable and help you to achieve your goals. I never thought my personal trainer would come in the form of a Cockatoo.

Kirby the Cockatoo

His name is Kirby. He has been around for about 8 years. When he first came into my life he was mostly just a friend, someone to talk to and hang out with. As time went on I noticed that he was not content with having our relationship at just the friendship level, he wanted more! At first I didn't really know how much more he wanted until one day when I was doing my abs and pushups he came over and joined me. He wanted to be involved, and that he did.

Resistance Training

 It started with the abs and pushups and gradually grew from there with joining me on my indoor rides or stretching routines. He can be encouraging as he bobs up and down as I'm going through my workout, but sometimes it can be annoying. But there is that side to him, as with any personal trainer, where all my working out was not enough. He wanted me to do more! And he showed this by screaming at me. His screams are quite awful and are very hard to ignore. So he gets his way more often than not.

Giving me encouraging words

Improving form

As time went on though, I noticed that his feelings for me started to grow. The screams were not only for me to do more workouts, but just so he could be with me. Since he is my personal trainer there has to be boundaries set between personal and professional. So now more of my workouts are done outside.

Successful workout!

Calapooia Ice Baths!

Sore and fatigued muscles are inevitable during training. Therefore, an ice bath was calling my name. I am very fortunate to live next to a river. As filling a tub up full of cold water and ice takes a lot of effort and can be a hassle. Plus, I get anxious waiting for the tub to fill so I can jump in for that great chilling sensation!

To be more exact, I live next to the Calapooia River. The depth of this river fluctuates a lot! For instance, the section by our house during the summer is only about a foot deep. Then as we start to get rain it starts to rise but does not always stay that deep until we get more of the consistent rain, or during the spring when the snow starts to melt off the Cascade mountain range. Then there are those natural disasters like floods, which we seem to have gotten the last couple years. The Calapooia turns into a raging river at that point. It's actually pretty neat to watch all the fallen trees and other debris float down the river but sometimes its a little nerving if the river will come out of the bank. Thankfully, it has not happened. And obviously, when the river is at this state I would not dare want to try and take an ice bath in it, unless I really wanted to test myself....which I don't!

So down to the river I went today. As stated above, the river is at the point of "just deep enough" to take my ice bath. It probably comes up to just below my knee. 

On my way down

Since I like to get in to at least my waist, my only choice was to sit in the river. This can sometimes be a little tricky since I have a long sleeve on (to keep warm) and don't want to use my arms to lower myself into the water. 

Trying to balance as I sit down

It was a successful transition. Now it was time to sit and watch the water and leaves flow past me for 10 minutes. It's actually quite peaceful to listen to the water but feeling the leaves hit me sometimes makes my mind wonder if those are leaves or something else!

Successful transition without falling!

There has been controversy on whether or not ice baths work and help aid in recovery. I personally feel that they do, which is why I still do them :D

Below, I found some do's and don'ts for taking ice baths. 

Written by Andy Schmitz

• DO: Be conservative with water temperature as you get started. Most rehabilitation specialists recommend a water temperature between 54-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Consider starting a bit higher and inch this downward a degree or two each exposure.
• DO: Recognize that each individual will have his or her own cold threshold. Play within your personal comfort zone, and consider investing in booties (toe warmers made of wetsuit material) as your toes are likely the most sensitive body part to be submerged.
• DON'T: Overexpose! At the recommended temperature range above, 6-8 minutes should be sufficient. Unless supervised or you have history with ice baths, do not exceed 10 minutes.
• DON'T: Assume colder is better. Spending a prolonged period of time in water colder than 54 degrees could be dangerous.
• DO: Be aware that moving water is colder water. Much like the wind chill created when you ride, if there are jets in your ice bath and the water that is warmed at the skin's surface gets pushed away, the resulting impact of the water will be cooler than measured by the thermometer.
• DON'T: Assume 54-60 degrees or bust. Cool water (say, 60-75 degrees) can still be beneficial -- as can active recovery (very light exercise to facilitate blood flow to musculature)
• DO: Seek to simplify. Building a personal ice bath daily can be a daunting task. Look for a gym that has a cold plunge, or if you live close to a river, lake or the ocean, keep tabs on the current water temperature.
• DON'T: Rush to take a warm shower immediately after the ice bath. The residual cooling effect and gradual warming are ideal. Consider initial warming options of a sweatshirt, blanket and/or warm drink... but DO take the shower if you are unable to warm yourself.

Outrun Your Fear!

It was a gorgeous day here in the mighty northwest. Today I had an hour long run. It's always nice to get off the pavement and run on earthen trails. And this is precisely what I did. The temperature today made it all the way to 70 degrees, which is unheard of this time of year! I am not complaining, by any means. It made for a very nice run.

As the run started out, the sun was still hiding behind the clouds. 6 minutes later the sun appeared and it was very warming. Enough so that I decided to take off my shirt, which I have not been able to do since the beginning of September. It was a nice feeling of freedom from fabric.

The trails were nice and luscious as well. They were still a little damp from the previous rain but only enough that they were squishy instead of muddy. There were leaves of all colors, yellow, orange, red, brown, falling to the ground as I ran through. It gave such a peaceful sensation.

The trails that I run are hilly. I have yet to find one that does not climb at least 1,000 ft. So up and down the trails I went. One thing that is always nice about running on hills is the variation of the terrain. Having to change your stride up constantly. Also, the satisfaction of being able to run those hills and not let them run you!

It was the perfect day....well, almost.... Now I am on my way back and am about 200 feet away from being done, and then all of a sudden the little hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up. So I slowed down, maybe to about 6:00 minute mile pace, but I saw nothing. So I went a little further, and still, I saw nothing. All kinds of images starting to run through my mind. Maybe it was the three legged dog that gave me a hard time earlier in the week, or maybe it was a cougar sizing my up for its next meal. My thoughts were endless. Then, in a split second I saw it. It was a Sheriff! So I flew myself into the trees so he could not see me. After all, I didn't have a shirt on! He was gone as soon as I saw him.

I finished my run.


*Events in this may or may not be true.

Some Interesting, Funny Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Me!

This is where I often see them

Here are 17 facts that I would like to share with you. Why 17 you may ask. Well, 17 is my favorite and lucky number. But now that I told you that, I guess you now know 18 things about me!

1. I always say hi to every Hawk I pass while riding or running
2. Am often mistaken to be 16 years old
3. Been asked on several occasions if my having long hair is for my religion...... its not!
4. Always have salt on any kind of melon....trust me, its good! Try it!
5. I have bunions on both feet - Can be a nuisance at times!
6. Have only broken one bone in my entire life - my left wrist
7. I know how to tile, roof, paint, lay laminate and real wood floors, build a fence, deck, put siding on a house
8. Have been running since I was about 11 years old (not competitively at that age)
9. Frequently screw up sayings!
10. I can bear crawl like no other! 
11. I'm a bit of a clean freak. 
12. Driving over consecutive speed bumps (at a higher speed than allowed) or a bumpy road always makes me giggle.
13. Since the start of my 2012 season I have worn a Saint Christopher around my neck. It has not left my neck since I've put it on....I'm not superstitious, just a little stitious :P
14. I will a lot of times sing or talk to myself while riding my bike....don't worry, I haven't gone crazy (yet), just entertaining myself. As I often bike alone.
15. My road bike's name is Agatha, and my TT bike's name is Joon Pyo.....both bikes were named with help from my sisters...unintentionally.
16. Broke out with chicken pox when I was 7 days old. Was the youngest patient to have them. Apparently I broke out really bad and they had to wrap my hands so I wouldn't scratch (glad I don't remember). Now I have scars from it!
17. I love to cook and bake

Way too much Pumpkin!!

Apparently this month is NaNo (National Novel Writing Month). Therefore, instead of me writing a novel (that's my sister's department) I will be posting a blog everyday this month. I must say, it is going to be quite a stretch for me since I've never been one for writing. But I think the hardest part is going to be figuring out what to write about. So if anyone has any suggestions or is interested in the inter workings of my mind....please let me know!!

I thought I would share my adventure of making yummy treats from a home grown pumpkin. First, the story of how the pumpkin started. This is the first year my family and I have ever grown our own pumpkins! The original plan was to grow them and then carve them for Halloween, but I never got around to carving one. Plus, even if I had we had more than enough pumpkins to deal with. Therefore, it was time to attempt the task of making treats from scratch!

Since I have never done this before (or anyone in my family) I had my good pal, Google, to ask how to use a fresh pumpkin. Originally, when I read about it, it seemed simple enough and wouldn't be too time consuming! However, it is more time consuming than I had anticipated as you will read below that it takes a couple hours just to get the pumpkin in the right state to mutilate! At least I had it planned to make the crusts in that down time.

First step: Cut the pumpkin in half (or in my case, since the pumpkin was a bit large, I had to quarter it) and then put it on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 - 1.5 hours at 400 degrees.

Second step: Scrap out the inside and puree it. I accomplished this by putting it in a blender. It worked wonderfully! I only scraped out one quarter of the pumpkin and that made about 8 cups worth!

That is pretty much all it takes to make the pumpkin usable to use in treats. I ended up making pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake that evening. Since I had so much pumpkin already pureed my goal was to try and use all of it because I didn't want to have to store it and then find the energy again to make more! Therefore, I ended up making 2 cheesecakes and 4 pumpkin pies! Yes, it was a lot, and I still had some pumpkin left over!

Now the real question is, what am I going to make with the other 3 quarters of the pumpkin?!?! So far I have come up with: cookies, bread, muffins, soup, smoothie, ice cream, or perhaps more pies! I will have to strategically plan on what I make otherwise I might be faced with overindulging in all these pumpkin treats!

Bugs!

Bugs! Bugs are one of those creatures that I don't think are well liked. Which, I would have to admit I am one of those people. Don't get me wrong, bugs are fascinating creatures. They are a food supply to so many other animals, so of course, we need to co-exist with them. However, there are some bugs that I would consider to be cool. For instance the cicada. I usually refer to them as the summer bug because that is when you can hear them the most. They make pretty cool noises.

A dead Cicada I found while in Vermont

But the point of this post is not to talk about what kinds of bugs are cool or not, but rather the villainy of bugs! I thought I would share a couple stories that I have have had recently that involved bugs! I'm sure all of you who ride bikes, run or do anything outdoors for that matter have had the great pleasure of encountering a bug or perhaps a swarm of bugs!

That is exactly what got to encounter.....a swarm of little gnats. Instead of just hitting me and bouncing off they were attached to me! It was quite gross! I tried to refrain from freaking out while still moving on the bike, cause I'm sure we all know how that would end! So without too much hysterics I was able to brush all the little heathens off of me and continue on my ride without a free loader!

I think it was on this same ride where I got some bigger bugs that would manage to fly into the spaces of my helmet just perfectly! You can sometimes feel them move around in your hair, which can be disturbing! When this first happened to me I had to stop and take my helmet off to get rid of it, but to my surprise when I did so there was nothing there. Ever since then I've learned to deal with the fact that they may be in my hair or hopefully flew out!

On this particular ride though, bugs seemed to be everywhere, and right after this ride I had a swim workout, which was about an hour long. Since I did my workouts back to back I braided my hair so I wouldn't have to mess with it, and therefore, whatever was in my hair would be staying there throughout the workout (without my knowledge). Once I finished my workout in the pool I took off my swim cap and stretched a little bit before getting out. While I was stretching I see this little black beetle floating/swimming by (I'm not sure if it was alive or not, I would think dead, but who knows!) At first when I saw it, I thought "how on earth did that thing get in the pool!" Then I remembered on my bike ride all the bugs that were hitting my helmet.

Not sure if this is the correct beetle, but it gives you an idea!

I'd like to think that it got in the pool by chance and was not from riding around in my hair for 2+ hours! Only that bug knows! But I'm pretty sure he is dead now!